Hearts Afire

by Deborah Fletcher Mello

  Zak’s stare was ice-cold, daggers piercing the room. “No.”

  The two men stood staring at each other harshly before the detective moved on with his questioning.

  The ship’s cruise director shook her head vehemently. “Mr. Sayed arrived at the casino early and was there through the end of the tournament. He never left the room.”

  The cruise line’s chief security officer tried to appear commanding. Slight in frame with a voice that sounded like a mouse scratching for attention made that hard for him to do. “We have Ms. Boudreaux on tape talking to another passenger on the upper decks at five-thirty. His name is Lloyd. Alexander Lloyd.”

  Zak bristled; that information was something he hadn’t known.

  The security guy continued, “Less than four minutes later, we see her returning to Mr. Sayed’s suite. Mr. Sayed exited that same room shortly after seven. We can’t find Ms. Boudreaux on tape anymore after that.”

  The detective nodded. “I want to see all those tapes, please.”

  Zak paid particular attention to Frank and Gerard as the detective questioned them about their involvement. Both swore that Maitlyn had been well and good when they’d come to the door.

  “She said that she was feeling under the weather, motion sickness from the bad weather,” Gerard stated. “We offered to walk her down to the casino,” he added, “but she said she would come along later.”

  “I feel horrible,” Alexander intoned. “She was such a delightful woman. I wish I knew more, but I was playing cards with her boyfriend all night.”

  When Zak had heard enough he moved toward the door. Detective Rossi gestured for one of his officers to stop him, and the young lieutenant moved to block his way. He cut an eye at the man, then slowly turned to his commander.

  “Rushing off somewhere, Mr. Sayed?” Detective Rossi asked.

  “I need to go ashore,” Zak said. “I need to contact her family.”

  “One of my officers will take you to the station.”

  Zak shook his head. “That won’t be necessary. There’s a little coffee shop as you exit the dock. You’ll be able to find me there.”

  Rossi’s eyes widened. “Mr. Sayed,” he started, “while we’re investigating this case, it’s best you—”

  Zak interrupted the man. “Unless you’re arresting me, I’ll be at the coffee shop. Then I’ll return to the ship. You have my word.”

  After a moment’s hesitation, the man nodded, and Zak rushed pass him.

  * * *

  The espresso shop was full; a host of cruise ship passengers packed in to partake of the baklava and assorted Greek pastries. Zak stepped through the door and took a quick glance around. He moved to an empty table in the corner. When a young waiter came to the table, he ordered a cup of their Greek coffee, a true coffee lover’s brew, black as hell, strong as death and sweet as love, according to the shop’s motto.

  After connecting his laptop to the store’s Wi-Fi, he signed into his email. The message was at the top of his inbox list. The sender was unknown, the ID a series of numbers, but the message text was crystal clear. There was a photograph of Maitlyn holding the morning’s newspaper and an offshore Panamanian bank account number. He had until the ship left dock that afternoon to transfer his two-hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar winnings into it.

  A dark shadow loomed over his computer screen, and he lifted his eyes to find Kendrick Boudreaux staring down at him.

  “You lost my sister?”

  “I will get her back,” Zak offered with regret but assurance.

  Kendrick shook his head as he took a seat in the chair opposite of him. “You have a tail!” he said as he gestured for the waiter, tilting his head toward a blond-haired woman sitting in the opposite corner.

  Zak nodded. “Local police. The detective thinks I strangled Maitlyn and threw her body overboard.”

  “You might wish you had when we get her back and she finds out she got caught up in one of our missions. Why did they take her anyway? What happened to our bait?”

  Zak hesitated for a moment before responding. “I think they figured out that Maitlyn was my Achilles’ heel. The best way to get to me was to threaten to hurt her.”

  Kendrick eyed him curiously. “Why would they think you and Maitlyn were that close?”

  Zak met Kendrick’s intense stare, but he had no words.

  Kendrick suddenly shook his head. He jumped to his feet, his face skewed in disbelief. “My sister? Oh, hell no!” he snapped as he slammed back in his seat. “I should bust you in your head. Didn’t anyone ever teach you the rules?” Kendrick counted off on his fingers. “You don’t mess with your buddy’s sisters. And you don’t sleep with your best friend’s mother.” Kendrick tossed up his hands. “There’s some shit you just don’t do!”

  Zak nodded. “I would never sleep with your mother.”

  The two men continued to eye each other intently. Zak broke the silence, his voice coming in a loud whisper. “I love Maitlyn, and she loves me.”

  Kendrick shook his head. “If anything happens to my sister, I will kill you.”

  Zak smiled. “I know you’ll try. But I’m not going to let anything happen to Maitlyn. I promise you that.”

  Kendrick let out a deep sigh, his head still shaking slowly.

  “How’d they get her out of the room and off the ship?” Zak asked.

  “That took some skills. The two of them tossed her off your balcony. She was wearing a life vest with a GPS chip. They had a boat waiting nearby to fish her out. I’m thinking they drugged her, because she didn’t put up a fight. There’s no way my sister would have gone over the side without kicking and screaming if she’d been conscious. That’s going to piss her off, too.”

  “How long was she in the water?”

  “Longer than you or I would have liked now that I know it was Maitlyn who’d been tossed overboard,” Zak said in an attempt to slightly ease Kendrick’s tension.

  Zak studied Kendrick from across the table. He knew he had let him down. There wasn’t much he didn’t know about his partner; the two had been assigned more cases together than either cared to count. Zak’s career had started with Interpol, the network of police forces from countries all over the world. Kendrick had been with the FBI. Both had been recruited for a special joint unit of the Secret Service within months of each other. Their partnership had worked from day one, and Zak couldn’t imagine having a better partner by his side. He trusted Kendrick with his life and he knew Kendrick felt the same way. But he also knew that if Kendrick were to trust him with his sister, it would give new dimension to their friendship.

  This mission had been two years in the making. What had started as a simple financial fraud case had crossed borders from one side of the world to the other. Identifying the players had taken some serious team work. All the players had been carefully selected and put into place: Izabella, the captain, even Lourdes the waitress. No one had been missed. Izabella should have been the hostage mark. He had never considered that his relationship with Maitlyn would derail that entire scheme but they were prepared with a contingency plan.

  Tracking down Alexander Lloyd and learning his dirty secrets had been routine. His many crimes included human trafficking, money laundering and fraud, and he was at a point of desperation, his gambling debts extreme. He had bankrupted his father’s business and squandered the millions of dollars owned by Lloyd Banks’ account holders. Winning that poker game had been his last hope to gain a foothold toward recovery, and Zak had snatched that from him. They had left Alexander with few options and the temptation had been more than he could resist.

  A text message chimed on Kendrick’s phone, and he read it quickly. He tossed Zak a quick look. “You need to get back to the ship. The lines are in place. They’re ready for you to make that transfer. We’ll be able to track it
all the way into Alexander’s back pocket.”

  “This doesn’t feel right to me,” Zak said. “Are you sure our agents have an eye on Maitlyn?”

  Kendrick nodded. “She’s not far from here. But what’s really bothering you?” he asked.

  “This feels personal.”

  “That will happen when you sleep with my sister and she gets kidnapped,” Kendrick said sarcastically.

  Zak shook his head. He suddenly shifted forward in his seat. “Alexander knew about Debra. But how did he know? And why would he taunt Maitlyn with it? That’s been racking my brain for days now.”

  Kendrick shifted forward in his own seat, and the two huddled together. “What did you find?” he questioned.

  “That’s it. I haven’t been able to figure it out. But there’s something to Alexander Lloyd that we’re missing, and I can’t risk Maitlyn being hurt because of it.”

  Kendrick stood up. “I’ll make some calls. You head back to the ship and make the transfer, and then meet me back here. We’ll go pick up Maitlyn together.”

  Zak watched as Kendrick made his way out the door. He dropped a tip onto the table and headed to the opposite corner of the room. The female officer was wide-eyed as she looked up at him. “I’m headed back to the ship,” he said. “Please let Detective Rossi know.”

  Chapter 16

  Maitlyn had been fighting a fever since they’d taken her off the boat. Her whole body hurt, and she could feel the tight congestion settling deep in her chest. She’d developed a nasty cough that sounded like she was going to bring up a lung.

  She dragged her body off the mattress on the floor, moving to the door. It was locked from the other side, and Maitlyn banged on it for the umpteenth time, hopeful that the harsh rap might draw someone’s attention. She knew that she was in a basement; no hint of a window allowed in any light. The space was damp and chilly, and the smell of mildew filled the room.

  She’d only seen one person since she’d been dumped there, an elderly woman whose English was as bad as Maitlyn’s Greek. The woman had brought her a bowl of soup, a loaf of bread, a pitcher of water, a thin blanket and an empty bucket. Then she’d made Maitlyn sit with a copy of the morning newspaper and snapping her photograph with a digital camera. Someone else had let the woman in and then had let her out. Two sets of footsteps moved back up a flight of stairs.

  Maitlyn didn’t know if she should be scared or not. She still didn’t have a clue what was going on or why she was being held. The old woman didn’t have any answers for her. She shook her head, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes.

  Moving back to the tattered mattress, Maitlyn lay down on her side and pulled the blanket over her shoulders. She drew her knees to her chest, curling her body in fetal position. She wanted Zak. She would have given anything to be in his arms. And she hated thinking that might never happen again.

  * * *

  The money transfer had gone through without incident. Within minutes of delivery, Zak received an email telling him where he could find Maitlyn. He changed from his suit to a pair of black nylon jogging pants, sneakers and a T-shirt. He was headed toward the exit when one of the ship stewards stopped him to deliver an urgent message that the captain needed to see him as soon as possible. Stealing a quick glance at his watch, Zak hustled his way to the helm. Simon was standing at the entrance to the control room. The two men locked gazes.

  “You received a message. Your assistant needs you to call. She said it’s important.”

  Zak took a deep breath. “Can you get me a line out?”

  The captain nodded. “It’ll have to be quick. We need to prepare for departure. We’ll pull out in two hours.”

  “I appreciate it,” Zak said as the captain led him to his private office to connect the call.

  Minutes later, Bailey Chase, a former technical analyst and communications specialist, picked up the line. She was a computer wizard with extraordinary technical abilities, and Zak relied heavily on her skill set.

  “What did you find out?” Zak asked.

  “Debra had a brother.”

  “Excuse me?” Shock rang in Zak’s tone. “Debra was an only child.”

  “Debra’s mother had a son she gave up for adoption. The adoption had been arranged by the Catholic Church, and the records were sealed. The child was adopted by Talon and Pietra Hernandez. The adoptive parents were killed in a car accident when her brother was two years old. He spent a year at a convent children’s home in England and was then adopted by Max and Kirsten Lloyd. Alexander Lloyd is Debra’s biological brother.”

  Zak was stunned, taken aback by the news. After a moment of silence, he asked, “Did she know?”

  “Probably not. Those records are still sealed. I kind of went through the back door to get them. You know how I do.”

  “Is it possible Alexander knows?”

  “There’s a notation in his file that Alexander visited the convent looking for information on his parentage but was denied. Thanks to a very generous donation from one Zakaria Sayed and Debra Mercado, the convent’s records were converted to digital data the year before his visit. You and I both know that the right amount of money in the right palm and those files might have easily been left open on a desk or public computer for someone to read. Or someone like me could’ve just hacked in.

  “And something else you should know,” Bailey continued. “Last year the agency declassified the files on Debra’s death. If her brother wanted the details, he would have had no problems finding them.”

  A wave of panic hit Zak in his midsection. He sucked in a swift inhale of air. Not bothering to say goodbye Zak disconnected the call. Something in his gut told him Alexander had no intentions of letting Maitlyn go.

  * * *

  A white panel truck was parked at the corner of the Cephalonia neighborhood when the taxi dropped Zak off in front of the home where he hoped to find Maitlyn. Zakaria stepped out and saw that Kendrick and the backup team were already in place.

  Zak adjusted his earphones, finagling the volume. “Hey, can you hear me?”

  Kendrick’s voice sounded back within seconds. “Loud and clear, brother-in-law.”

  Zak brushed a lazy hand past his ear, his fingers grazing the earpiece in his ear. He then glanced over the landscape, looking for anything that might be out of the norm. “Anything yet?” he asked.

  “Negative,” Kendrick stated. “Just head to the door, and, please, watch your back. We don’t know what to expect. Besides, I really want to see my sister kick your ass for getting her into this mess.”

  Zak nodded. So do I, he thought. Though, he hadn’t shared the information he’d received from Bailey with anyone. He knew it would have made them both anxious, and, because he was already on pins and needles, he needed Kendrick to be calm.

  He was worried about Maitlyn, and he couldn’t afford to let it show. The anxiety was reminiscent of his experience with Debra. He had been deep undercover for over one year in pursuit of a renowned drug lord. Debra, wanting to surprise him for his birthday, had shown up unexpectedly. Trying to save his cover, he’d treated her badly. Her reaction had been just enough for the drug cartel to go digging. Researching Debra led them right back to his true identity. Once unmasked, revenge against him was inevitable. He’d come home to find her petite body riddled with bullets. He’d shown the drug lord more mercy, only firing one shot to the man’s head. After, he’d handed in his gun and badge, retreating to Morocco. Until Kendrick had come calling, reviving life back into him. Now, here they were, him scared of what Debra’s brother had in store for Maitlyn.

  Zak took a deep breath to steel his nerves. As he approached the home’s front door, a car pulled into the narrow driveway and an attractive woman jumped out excitedly.

  “So sorry I’m late!” she exclaimed, rushing to shake
Zak’s hand. “Mr. Sayed, I’m Phoebe Christos.”

  Confusion washed over Zak’s face.

  “The real estate agent,” she added.

  Zak nodded as the woman continued talking; her exuberance was overwhelming. “You were probably expecting Mr. Kalfas, but he was called away on an emergency. I was very excited to be able to step in and take his place.” She suddenly turned and gave him a once-over. “Was your wife not able to join you?” she asked.

  Zak shook his head. “I’m hoping she’ll be along shortly,” he said.

  The agent smiled brightly as she used a key to open the front door. “Well, this home is priced at one hundred and fifty-eight thousand euros. It has two bedrooms, one bathroom and five hundred and fifty square meters of outdoor space and a basement. You have fabulous views of the sea and beach and it’s close to a number of taverns and cafés. Come see,” she said, not bothering to take a breath until she’d actually stopped speaking.

  Zak’s eyes skated quickly about the space. The home was empty; there was no sign of Maitlyn. He paced from one room to another, trying to make sense of the situation. His anxiety levels were steadily rising.

  The real estate agent was still chattering on and on until Zak interrupted her. “Excuse me, but who made this appointment. Do you have a name?”

  She looked at him awkwardly. “Well, you did. Didn’t you?”

  Zak took a deep breath.

  “Why don’t I show you the upstairs,” she said. Zak raced in that direction before the woman could finish the sentence.

  The only piece of furniture in the entire home was a small wooden table that sat in the center of the finished master space. A legal-size white envelope addressed to Zakaria sat on top. Zak tore it open, pulling a folded sheet of paper and a picture from inside. He was immediately alarmed by the image of Maitlyn—she clearly wasn’t in good health. He felt his heart fracture. The message was short.